CHIAYI COUNTY, Taiwan: Taiwan produces only a small amount of coffee each year, but its specialty beans fetch some of the world's highest prices as growers prioritise quality over scale to carve out a niche in the premium coffee market.

In the scenic mountains of Alishan, more than 1,200m above sea level, farmers produce small batches of specialty coffee that are attracting buyers willing to pay more.

At last year's Cup of Excellence, an annual auction platform for high-quality coffees, Taiwanese beans recorded the world's highest average selling price at US$52 a pound, nearly three times the average price of beans from second-placed El Salvador.

QUALITY ABOVE QUANTITY

Among Alishan's leading growers is the family-run Zou Zhou Yuan farm.

Founder Fang Cheng-lun says the region's cooler temperatures give the coffee its distinctive flavour.

“Because of the cooler climate, the coffee cherries grow much more slowly,” said Fang. “That slower growth allows them to build up more flavour compounds, sugars and density.”

That slower ripening process has helped Taiwan's beans stand out among those from traditional coffee-producing countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Ethiopia.

However, observers say that quality comes at a price. Farmers carefully hand-pick only ripe coffee cherries before processing them, a labour-intensive approach that drives up production costs.

“The daily wage I pay one coffee picker could hire more than 40 workers in Ethiopia, or more than a dozen in Central America,” said Fang.

“On top of that, Taiwan has very limited land, so it's not easy to grow coffee on a large scale.”

Taiwan produces a small amount of coffee each year – around 1,000 tonnes. But it imports about 50,000 tonnes of beans to satisfy domestic demand.

Unable to compete on volume, growers are instead focusing on craft...